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U.S. President to add new restrictions on Huawei telecom business
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday signed legislation to target and impose new restrictions on the world’s largest telecom equipment maker – Huawei and its Chinese counterpart ZTE. The U.S. prez is taking the new step on the name of national security threats and preventing Huawei from getting access to telecom equipment licenses.
According to Reuters, the latest move by the U.S. president is an effort to prevent Chinese tech makers and Huawei and slow down their progress in the world of Telecom business.
The latest bill has been proposed under “The Secure Equipment Act” and was approved unanimously by the U.S. Senate on October 28, and earlier this month by the U.S. House on a 420-4 vote.
From a political perspective, the latest bill has come a day before Joe Biden and Xi Jinping are expected to hold a virtual summit on different matters.
New Law:
The law requires the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to no longer review or approve any authorization application for equipment that poses an unacceptable risk for national security, especially targeting Huawei and other Chinese tech make.
The law “will help to ensure that insecure gear from companies like Huawei and ZTE can no longer be inserted into America’s communications networks,” said FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr.
He revealed that over 3000 application from Huawei has been approved since 2018. In March, the FCC designated five Chinese companies under a 2019 law to protect U.S. networks.
These companies are named:
- Huawei
- ZTE
- Hytera Communications
- Hangzhou Hikvision
- Zhejiang Dahua
Back in June, FCC also voted to approve an “advance ban” for equipment used in U.S. telecom networks featuring Chinese companies.
In this regard, Huawei protested and replied that FCC’s latest decision is false and “misguided and unnecessarily punitive. In the meantime, the Chinese tech maker has also reiterated that the company’s network equipment is safe to use and doesn’t pose any security threat.